The Border Between Egypt & Sudan at the Wadi Halfa Salient

The Border Between Egypt & Sudan at the Wadi Halfa Salient, a photo by amproehl on Flickr.

See the 52 villages in the map? No? That's because they were flooded by the damning of the Nile and the creation of Lake Nasser (known as Lake Nubia in Sudan). The strange bulge (known as a salient in cartography parlance) along this portion of the Egypt-Sudan border was originally surrounded the villages that dotted this section of the Nile.

Egypt and Sudan have 3 areas of land under dispute and a fourth that neither country claims. The original 1899 border between the two countries ran straight along the 22nd North Parallel line with no deviations. In 1902, Britain amended the border to account for some tribal and administrative issues. There were 52 villages where the Nile River crossed the 22nd Parallel. It was decided that these villages would be easier to maintain from the Sudanese side of the border so the border was changed to how it appears above. There appears to be a stretch of rough and desolate terrain North of this area that separates it from the next set of villages in current maps.

Egypt now claims this area along with the other two areas (Bir Tawil and the Hala'ib Triangle) in dispute. They maintain a military presence in the other two but not here as there is little of interest to guard. My map of Bir Tawil and the Hala'ib Triangle is here.

I've also made a map of the area showing the location of the former towns and ruins based on a 1953 British survey map.

Source: Wikipedia

A Map of the Strange Border Between New York & New Jersey on Ellis Island

A Map of the Border Between New York & New Jersey on Ellis Island, a photo by amproehl on Flickr.

For so many immigrants, stepping off a ship onto Ellis Island was synonymous with arrival in New York City. Many years later, after the immigration station had closed and the buildings lie decaying, the US Supreme Court would decide that Ellis Island, with one small exception, was part of New Jersey.

The original colonial land grant for New Jersey defined it's border as the waterline of New York Bay and the Hudson River, meaning that the water and all islands within it belonged to New York. Most treaties place borders in the middle of natural borders like lakes and rivers. New Jersey tried to fight the claim starting in the early 1800s. In 1834 a compact between New York and New Jersey and ratified by the US Congress set the border as the middle of the Hudson River. This put jurisdiction and bragging rights over the island completely in New Jersey which they were quick to assert and claim in a court filing. The case went all the way up to the Supreme Court. New York fought hard but in the end was awarded only the small 3.3 acre section of the original island. Since that border follows the island's original shoreline it appears quite random today and passes through the middle of numerous buildings. The majority of the current island (most of it created by landfill from the digging of New York City subway tunnels) is now officially part of the State of New Jersey. Payback for Jersey's actions and perhaps the best argument for custody came from then Mayor Rudy Giuliani who remarked that his Italian father "never intended to emigrate to New Jersey."

In the pre-colonial days, Ellis Island was one of several, oyster-rich islands on the western tidal flats of Upper New York Bay. Other nearby islands included Liberty Island (originally Bedloe's Island and site of the Statue of Liberty) and Black Tom Island (named after an African-American that lived on the island according to local legend). Before becoming known as Ellis Island, it had been known as Dyre's Island, Bucking, Gibbet (Gibbet's being cages for displaying the dead bodies of convicted pirates), and lastly, Little Oyster Island. Samuel Ellis acquired the island during the American Revolution and first tried to sell it in 1785. New York State leased the island in 1794 until the Federal Government bought the island in 1808 and began expanding it before opening it as an immigration station in 1892.

Source: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ellis_island & Google Maps

Via Flickr:
For so many immigrants, stepping off a ship onto Ellis Island was synonymous with arrival in New York City. Many years later, after the immigration station had closed and the buildings lie decaying, the US Supreme Court would decide that Ellis Island, with one small exception, was part of New Jersey.

The original colonial land grant for New Jersey defined it's border as the waterline of New York Bay and the Hudson River, meaning that the water and all islands within it belonged to New York. Most treaties place borders in the middle of natural borders like lakes and rivers. New Jersey tried to fight the claim starting in the early 1800s. In 1834 a compact between New York and New Jersey and ratified by the US Congress set the border as the middle of the Hudson River. This put jurisdiction and bragging rights over the island completely in New Jersey which they were quick to assert and claim in a court filing. The case went all the way up to the Supreme Court. New York fought hard but in the end was awarded only the small 3.3 acre section of the original island. Since that border follows the island's original shoreline it appears quite random today and passes through the middle of numerous buildings. The majority of the current island (most of it created by landfill from the digging of New York City subway tunnels) is now officially part of the State of New Jersey. Payback for Jersey's actions and perhaps the best argument for custody came from then Mayor Rudy Giuliani who remarked that his Italian father "never intended to emigrate to New Jersey."

In the pre-colonial days, Ellis Island was one of several, oyster-rich islands on the western tidal flats of Upper New York Bay. Other nearby islands included Liberty Island (originally Bedloe's Island and site of the Statue of Liberty) and Black Tom Island (named after an African-American that lived on the island according to local legend). Before becoming known as Ellis Island, it had been known as Dyre's Island, Bucking, Gibbet (Gibbet's being cages for displaying the dead bodies of convicted pirates), and lastly, Little Oyster Island. Samuel Ellis acquired the island during the American Revolution and first tried to sell it in 1785. New York State leased the island in 1794 until the Federal Government bought the island in 1808 and began expanding it before opening it as an immigration station in 1892.

Source: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ellis_island